Exploring the unexplored.

This was one of those laid back weekends when I kinda felt enough is enough and decided to just get my lazy bum of the couch. I took the bus to Hikkaduwa, have been hearing a lot about this place ever since i set foot in lanka a good 6 months ago. This place was simply insane, lovely beaches and while walking on the beach, I spotted this super huge turtle, in fact there were a few that I saw later on. Loads of foreigners wer baking themselves in the sun, chilling with beer and their respective BF’s and GF’s.

I then kind of wanted to see more such places, that’s when one of the localites there asked me to go to Unawatuna Beach. He mentioned that I would love it there. And boy, I did. That was like simply out of dreamworld. The beaches were simply awesome and wonderful. There were people jumping into the waters with their entire family. People baking in the sun, sipping beer, juices, reading books and other simply enjoying nature. I met a Belgian here, who was travelling with his wife. They travel to one place every year. The weather also was in tune for everybody to chill & enjoy.

I simply let all the awesomeness sink in and enjoyed the weekend clicking loads of pics and enjoying the beaches and the lovely bunch of people at the beaches.

I was coming back from Sri Lanka to Chennai with a very heavy heart as my Girl Friend for the last 5 years had very seriously mentioned about breaking up.

Though it all had taken its toll on me. I was certainly not in any frame of mind to do anything at all. No Office, no friends nothing. I kinda just wanted to get home and be with mom.

So after i got to chennai the very next day I rode to Bangalore on my bull. with so many crazy thoughts coming back to head. I was crying inside the helmet, behind my shades.

Some thought or the other would pop up. So many feelings like love, anger, disgust, insanity, lost, destroyed, pain and many random things I had never felt in life ever before.

so the pain was getting on my nerves. But I aas kind of doing what I loved oing the mist. That is to be on my Bulls saddle. I was simply riding it to get home and chill with mom. This was not my first solo ride.

Its veen a month since I did this ride. I did ride a few 100 kms before I travelled back to Colombo. Its almost 15 days here now and I am kinda getting better with the pain and everything reducing jn the bead.

Apart from just the riding, my yoga and meditation have also helped me to cope up with the stress. It has been a crazy few days. The pain n the memmories are still there. Let’s hope they heal fast and help feal with the demons.

But this definitely was the most loneliest ride I have ever had in my life ever.

An adventure that actually began as an official trip. We began the drive to the hills in the evening around 4 pm from Colombo. Nature was also so happy that the climate began to get pleasant and light showers were greeting us on the highway. we picked up a few biscuits and chocolates and red bulls for the journey. We drove through Hatton to Nuwaraeliya.

We did stop by somewhere in hills amidst tea plantations for a hot cuppa tea. It was a absolutely fantastic. The aroma and the fragrance of the tea was just simply out of the blue.

After helping ouselves to a nice meal and some brilliant tea. We continued on to the hills and reached the Guest House Serenus which had an amazing vie of the Gregory lake.

As there was persistant rains the night we reached. The temperature had dropped like crazy and we simply shivering. we then dug ourselves into the huge blankets and crashed for the night. Early in the morning the break fast served was super healthy with some rally neatly cut vegetables and some juice.

We headed to the famous Golf Club in the region for a meeting. The place was a peach in all this wilderness. It was an age old golf club with the best facilities. There were a few people playing the sport even in the drizzle.

Once we were done witb the moved we moved around in the town finding a nyc place to munch some nice strawberries and some pancakes.

We checked out the local market in town and also walked around the post office n other places. We saw lots of other tourists.

We also went to Piduruthalagala, the highest point in sri lanka. It is a nice place that is guarded by security n army forces as it is the places where they have all the communication towers placed. The view was simply breathtaking and amazing. no words can actually explakn that feeling.

Then we drove back to colombo stopping by at various points to capture pictures either of the tea estates or the small water falls every now n then.

That’s wha t the name of the this forest literally means – The Singharaja Forest. This forest is a Heritage site as declared by UNESCO. They say this is among the world’s best Rain Forests to be visiting. If one is taking this trip to the forest one must be prepared to walk miles of kms in a day, continuously. Also one must be prepared to get bitten by a lot of leeches and be prepared to see a lot of reptiles.

We took a bus from Pettah in Colombo to Deniyaya, that is a another entrance to the forest, it is a less explored place. Though the ditance was less than 150 kms, it took us a good 6 hrs to get there by the direct bus we took.

Our guide for the forest tour Sanjaya Ruwan was there waiting for us with his Tuk Tuk. He rode through some crazy little roads for a little over 15 kms and we arrived out the tiny cute little homestay that he had arranged for us.

The place was neatly tucked just outside the forest area. It was so serene and beautiful that we just ended up clicking one too many clicks even before we began the trek through the forest. We began the trek early in the morning so that we could see many birds and the reptiles in the area.

Sanjaya got to the home stay early in the morning. He smeared salt all around my feet saying that it keeps the leeches away. The the trek began, we say some crazy Green Pit Vipers and Black Pit Vipers apart from climbing and walking through this humongous forest to get to some of the waterfalls in the region. The place was simply awesome, very fresh.

After this the next day, we walked around in another direction to see a different kind of flora n fauna. We saw a few Sri Lankan endemic birds. And I also saw a snake that was eating a frog and clicked a few pics.

The greenery was just too peaceful to leave, apart from the fact that there was no mobile network coverage, it was a different level of serenity and joy. After the joyous trip we began on our way back. This time we took a bus to Galle and then the Highway bus to Colombo. We reached much quicker than the time we took to reach there.

The guide in Singharaja Forest Sanjaya did an awesome job, taking us around to the best parts of the jungle. It was a weekend that was very well spent. The joy and the elation was simply profound.

A weekend to enjoy and not too many things to do in the guest house, I decided to do what I love most, backpack n travel. I took the bus that went towards Anuradhapura, getting down at Dambulla and proceeding to Sigiriya. I reached close to the fort and saw this huge single kind of rock in the middle of nowhere. Walked up to the ticket counter and was suprised that they gave a discount to the people visiting from the SAARC countries. The climb to rock fort began very steadily with steps that were there. There were huge ponds or water catchment areas on both sides. Then there is a spiral step installed where we get to the Rock Paintings that date back a few centuries behind, if not more.

Then you get to a place called the The Lion Paw. That is from where the steep climb to the fort begins. Though now we have metal steps placed, it is indeed a crazy steep climb to the top. One too many people were huffing and panting in the effort to get to the top. Once you get to the top, all there is are ruins of the fort that kind of controlled the island country. The guides there were explaining everything the knew about the place to all the tourists.

It was very nice. I finished looking around and then descended down and walked out of the fort t the main road, as it was evening, i wanted to find a nice decent place to crash for the night. I was lucky enough to find a place very close to the fort at about LKR 1000 for the night. I stayed there, the guy even allowed me to watch EPL in his house and then I had Rice n Curry for dinner and munched Lays apart from the Plain Tea I kept having.

I left early in the morning towards Dambulla, to see the Rock Temples there.

Once I got to Dambulla bus stand, I asked the locals for guidance to reach the temple. One man guided me and also asked the bus driver to drop me just outside the temple, which he promptly did. There was a huge Buddha Statue to welcome me. They say, this statue of Buddha in this position is the biggest in the world. We then have to walk around the statue to get over the hill where the Buddhist Monks used to meditate in the meditation halls they had created in the hills by cutting the rocks. These places were absolutely awesome. The huge statues, the carvings on the walls, the paintings all around. Everything was simply mesmerizing. The view, the pleasant wind blowing up there, the cute lil lotus pond, the little cats playing around there.

Everything was a sight. Once I was done with the temple, i went back to the town and then took the bus back to Colombo. After having spent the weekend happily getting to know the history of the island country.

This was on a rainy saturday morning when I decided that enough is enough and packed my bag and left for Galle. The place is about 125 kms from Colombo. I took an AC Bus costing about 300 LKR to get to Galle.

The Bus drops you right in the centre of the town at the Galle Bus Stand. Opp is the garden, The cricket Stadium and further down the lane is the Galle Fort. I took a stroll into the Fort. The Fort is huge and probably had the entire town of Galle inside it at some point of time in history. Walking around the fort enjoying the sight that it had to offer was pretty awesome. Loads of tourists from different parts of the globe were also enjoying the weekend.

There were a few cliff jumpers who were entertaining crowds at some cliff points in the Fort. Also the Lighthouse was a sight in itself and the beaches here and there around the fort.

Once I got done walking through the fort, i stopped at a Danish Coffee house to grab a sandwich and some coffee. And also took advice on more places to visit in Galle, That’s when a guy at the Cafe asked me to go and visit Peace Pagoda and the Jungle Beach there. Both of them actually turned out to be a really good and awesome place to visit. I thoroughly enjoyed the calm and serene nature of the Jungle Beach. I kind of enjoyed sitting n sipping some kool juices for like almost 4 hours before i set myself to return back to Colombo.

It was indeed a day very well spent.

Had a great time chilling with myself.

Distance – Colombo to Galle – 125 kms

Time – 3 hrs on Galle Road else about 2 hrs if you take the expressway

Like always this was a ride, that was like decided on the spot after Gobbling up our Paranthas n Chai at the Great Patantha Company near Nandi Hills. The Idea of riding more beckoned us to just say yes to Vidur’s idea of riding to this unheard place.

This place is about 90 kms approx from Bangalore. We had already covered about 40 kms to the Break Fast point and so happily rode to this place. The cemented roads upto the top of the hill was a surprise.

This place is very charming and scenic. Nature’s beauty is in abundance. Absolutely calm and peaceful letting you blend in with Nature. In most cases apart from a few devotees who are there to visit the Temple, you will be the only souls in that Hill. This is not at all commercial, to the fact that there is not even a water shop or snack shop there. We got there after Break Fast and Chai so we were not particularly hungry or thirsty but just the beauty of the place and the joy of clicking photographs kept us going. This is definitely for travellers who love being with Nature and all by themselves.

We chilled there for sometime before we rode back stopping at a Tea Stall in the Village.

Both me and Dewang were casually munching dinner when we suddenly had this idea of driving to Mahabs. We took the OMR route and drove at a steady speed around 10 pm.
We reached the OMR-ECR intersection from where we took left and headed on ECR towards chennai. Thats when we saw this Kumbakonam Degree Coffee shop.
The place was very cute n small. Enough rooom to sit anf enjoy a nice coffee.
As expected the coffee was simple and tasty. We both enjoyed our cups and like always we repeated the order again.
The place has become a regular now. We love going there and enjoying our coffee there.

The ride to kemmangundi was with BMC Bangalore Motorcycle Club, we all met at Parle G factory on tumkur road. We had our formal introductions and then the briefing by our Pilot Roshan/ Vasu. We were about 15 bikes. We rode to tumkur at a steady pace before we stopped at our favourite joint for breakfast where all of us gobbled up Idli’s and Vada’s and a few managed Dosa’s too. Everybody slurped their cups of Coffee n Tea.
The we continued on our journey. I was more of a pillion on this ride, clicking photographs and enjoying the ride. We rode through a state highway with people crossing the roads like maniacs and also we had cows n dogs enjoying the roads at their leisure.
We reached Kemmangundi in Chikmangalur around about Lunchtime and unwinded ourselves to enjoy the place. We all had Lunch and then took some rest before we headed to explore the place. We rode to Kalhatti Falls and then we headed to a garden which was well maintained. Vasu Sir, Imran and many others had their share of fun with the sprinklers installed to water the lawn grass.
Then we trekked to a place from where the view was serene and blissful.
We took our strolls and enjoyed the trail. Clicking loads of pics and helping each other in the steep climb. The place has a lot of trails on offer and can be enjoyed for trekking and other adventure sports in winter.

Distance – 275 kms from Blore Approx

Cost – Around 2k per head in a decent Overnight Home Stay including 1 Lunch, 1 Dinner & 1 Breakfast.

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